Ali in the ring

Champion Muhammad Ali lands a right smash to the jaw of challenger Floyd Patterson in the seventh round of their heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas in November 1965.(Photo: AP)

Muhammad Ali became the world heavyweight champion in 1964 and ruled boxing even after leaving the ring in 1981 as a weary three-time champion.

During his time, boxing became theater and pop culture as never before, with Ali as the playwright, publicist, leading man, stage manager and critic. Here are some of the most meaningful — and memorable — fights in a matchless career.

CLAY-Liston I

Feb. 25, 1964

Miami Beach, Fla.

At the age of 22, Cassius Clay got his shot at the heavyweight championship — against an ex-convict named Sonny Liston.

Ali predicted “a total eclipse of the Sonny” and was so wired at the weigh-in that his blood pressure shot to twice its normal rate.

Only half the tickets were sold for the Miami Beach Convention Center as few fans expected the brash young Louisvillian to challenge Liston, a 7-1 favorite.

But early on, Ali sent a signal, landing punches while easily avoiding the champion’s looping left hooks. He held off the shorter Liston by pinning a glove against the champ’s forehead.

Liston grew frustrated, “and when you get frustrated, that takes all the snap out of your shots,” recalled Angelo Dundee, Ali’s trainer.

In the fourth and fifth rounds, Ali’s eyes began to sting and he could barely see.

“He had liniment in his glove,” Ali said after the fight. “My eyes was burning. … My whole face was burning. … The man’s trainers are dirty.”

Ali wanted to quit, but Dundee pushed him back into the ring. And once his eyes cleared, Ali delivered punches that puffed up Liston’s face. Spent and saying he had a shoulder injury, the champion stayed on his stool as the bell rang for the seventh round.

“I’m the greatest thing that ever lived!” he shouted. “I don’t have a mark on my face, and I upset Sonny Liston. I just turned 22 years old. I must be the greatest. …

“I am the king of the world. I’m pretty. I’m a bad man! I shook up the world! I shook up the world! I shook up the world! You must listen to me!”

Commentator Joe Louis declared: “I think this has got to go down as the biggest upset in the history of boxing. … If they have a return match, I think that it would sell out any stadium in the world.”

Ali-Liston II

May 25, 1965

Lewiston, Maine

The second Ali-Liston fight lasted less than two minutes — and turned on a punch that few people saw.

Planned for Boston, the fight was moved to Lewiston, where Liston was installed as a 9-5 favorite.

Midway through the first round, Ali landed a quick, downward right-hand punch to Liston’s jaw, sending the former champion to the canvas, where he stretched out like a man taking a Sunday afternoon nap.

Ali stood over him, yelling.

He was saying “Git up, sucker!” according to boxing writer Bert Sugar.

Referee Joe Walcott tried in vain to send Ali to a neutral corner. Television showed Liston was down for more than 17 seconds before rising to aim four useless lefts at Ali.

The fight was stopped, and Ali had retained his title, thanks to a “phantom” punch that caused some to suggest that Liston had taken a dive.

Boxing historian Bill Cayton was not among them.

“It was a short punch but a great, sharply delivered punch, one of Ali’s best,” he said.

Ali-Patterson I

Nov. 22, 1965

Las Vegas

The contrast between Ali and Floyd Patterson could not have been greater.

Patterson, a two-time champion, was the establishment’s choice.

He referred to the champion as Cassius Clay, and promised to “return the title to America.” Frank Sinatra paid an encouraging visit to Patterson’s hotel room before the fight.

Ali called Patterson “The Rabbit” — judging him timid and cowardly. He showed up at Patterson’s training center with lettuce and carrots — “rabbit food.”

During the fight, Patterson’s backers watched their man endure 11 rounds of agony at Ali’s hands.

When the referee stopped the fight in the 12th, Patterson protested — not because he wanted to continue, but because, as he told writer David Remnick, he craved the anesthetic effect of a knockout.

Ali-Williams

Nov. 14, 1966

Houston

After six years and 26 victories without a defeat, no one questioned Ali’s speed, reflexes or resourcefulness. Experts did question his punching power. The fight against Cleveland Williams removed some of those doubts.

Boxing historian Bill Cayton estimated that Ali landed 80 percent to 90 percent of his punches — three times the usual amount. After Ali knocked Williams down four times in the third round, the fight was stopped.

“I remember him hitting Cleveland Williams with eight consecutive punches to the jaw, and this guy collapsing like a huge building. It was amazing,” said Jose Torres, the boxing-champion-turned-author.

Ali’s friend Billy Crystal: “The accuracy and the stunning savagery is awesome. Anyone who says he isn’t a big puncher should look at this fight.”

“I thought it … would transcend boxing because of the Vietnam War, religion and being black in America,” Perenchio recalled years later.

During Ali’s exile, Frazier had defended him and had even given him money. But Ali cast Frazier as an ugly, ignorant “Uncle Tom” representing white America.

“Joe, in his innocence, was representing white America,” said Jim Brown, the former football player.

“To Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier had become the symbol of his oppression,” said Ali biographer Thomas Hauser.

The fight drew “the limo crowd,” in the words of Jerry Izenberg, a New Jersey newspaper columnist.

“It had the look of a coronation more than a fistfight,” Philadelphia columnist Stan Hochman said.

Burt Lancaster was a closed-circuit TV commentator; Frank Sinatra a photographer for Life magazine.

Before the fight, Marvis Frazier saw his father praying in the dressing room. Years later, he recalled asking his father what he prayed. His father’s answer: “Lord, help me to kill this man, because he’s not righteous.”

Frazier rattled Ali in the 11th and probably could have finished him, but feared that Ali might be trying to trap him and failed to follow up.

Ali rallied in the next two rounds, and Frazier was determined to finish him off. In the 15th, he knocked Ali to the canvas, expecting him to stay there. But Ali bounced up quickly from the only knockdown of the fight.

Frazier retained his title with a unanimous decision. Ali had suffered his first defeat.

Afterward, Perenchio recalled, he entered Ali’s dressing room only to see a glamorous woman weeping at his feet. It was Diana Ross.

“Diana, meet the man who paid me two and a half million dollars to get my ass whipped,” Ali said, according to Perenchio.

But Ali’s stature grew in defeat. He accepted his first loss with dignity and without excuses. And Frazier spent a week in the hospital, with high blood pressure and fatigue.

“The winner of that fight became the loser, and the loser became the winner,” Bert Sugar would later say.

Ali-Norton I

March 31, 1973

San Diego

Ken Norton was a handsome ex-Marine who once was Joe Frazier’s sparring partner. But he was so lightly regarded that even the Marine-vs.-the-draft-dodger story line failed to incite much pre-fight interest.

The Marine was, surprisingly, the master. Ali suffered a broken jaw — perhaps as early in the second round. Protecting his face, Ali lost a unanimous 12-round decision.

Norton’s camp thought the broken jaw came near the end of the fight. “I say it was in the last round,” Norton told author Stephen Brunt. “Because when you have an inch-and-a-half break in the jaw and someone is popping you upside the jaw as much as I hit Ali, with that pain, the mind would take over and shut down, I think.”

Norton would face Ali twice more — and lose — but this victory left him a made man in boxing.

“Ali was the best-known figure in the world at that time,” he said. “You defeated him, and your name rang throughout the world.”

Ali-Frazier II

Jan. 28, 1974

New York

By now, both fighters had lost some luster — Ali was 32 years old and twice-beaten — by Frazier and Norton. And Frazier had lost his title to George Foreman, who knocked him down six times in a fight that lasted 4 minutes and 35 seconds.

But the Ali-Frazier rivalry had not lost its sizzle: 20,748 fans would show up in Madison Square Garden, setting a gate-receipts record of $1.05 million for a nontitle fight.

During the buildup, Ali belittled his opponent, as usual. On an ABC talk show with Howard Cosell, Ali called Frazier “ignorant.” Frazier rose from his chair and advanced on Ali, who grabbed Frazier in a bear hug. Frazier slammed Ali to the floor.

“This time it seems to be for real,” Cosell said, with his voice rising. “Joe Frazier is really angry. Muhammad called him ignorant and he’s really angry. … I think that Ali is probably clowning, but there is no question in my mind that Frazier is not clowning.”

The fight itself — with gloves, trunks and corner men — failed to match the quality and intensity of the first. It was fought largely in the clinches. Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, said he counted 133 “holds” by Ali while watching a video. Ali won a unanimous decision in 12 rounds, squaring the series at 1-1.

Ali-Foreman

Oct. 30, 1974

Kinshasa, Zaire

Ali’s seven-year quest to reclaim his heavyweight championship was completed under circumstances that defied belief. The opponent was George Foreman, whose 40-0 record included 37 knockouts.

The fight began in the predawn to accommodate the American television audience.

Ali, who was 32, reasoned that the 24-year-old Foreman had little stamina because he so rarely fought more than 10 minutes. Foreman routinely dispatched his opponents in three rounds or fewer.

In the second round, Ali improvised his “rope-a-dope” strategy, hunkering against the ropes and covering his body as the champ flailed away, eventually exhausting himself.

Nearly 30 years later, Foreman would tell a documentary film crew: “Beat him up the first round. Beat him up the second. Third. Fourth. But he’s still there talking to me in the fifth: ‘That’s all you got?’

“I said, ‘What in the world have I ran into?’ This guy was still confident and he was getting more confident. … Next thing you know, he hit me with a one-two combination.”

When Ali scored in the eighth round, Foreman pirouetted slowly, crashing like an imploding landmark.

“The fight was over,” he recalled. “I had lost my title. Never been so devastated in my life. … It took me a long time, maybe a year, before I could sleep again.”

Ali-Frazier III

Oct. 1, 1975

Quezon City, Philippines

The buildup for the “Thrilla in Manila” included elements of soap opera and slapstick. Ali squired his young girlfriend Veronica Porche around Manila, not correcting anyone — including President Ferdinand Marcos — who mistook her for “Mrs. Ali.”

This stirred Ali’s wife, Belinda, to fly halfway around the world for a loud confrontation with the champion.

But it was the confrontation in the ring that became perhaps the most famous fight in history. Both men went to the limit — and beyond.

“What a murderous fight,” Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, would recall.

For 14 rounds, they fought to the point of exhaustion. Frazier’s left eye was swollen shut, making him unable to see or block Ali’s punishing rights.

“His face looked like it exploded,” according to Ferdie Pacheco, the fight doctor.

“Frazier was a blind man groping. … Trainer Eddie Futch stopped it after that round, an act of compassion rare in boxing,” recalled Bert Sugar, the boxing historian.

“Futch, who had seen four fighters killed in the ring, decided it wasn’t worth it, and said, ‘Sit down, son. It’s all over,’” said Mark Kram, a Sports Illustrated writer.

Ali appeared equally spent. Sitting on his stool, he weakly raised his right arm in victory.

“After that, neither (fighter) was the same again,” Sugar said.

Kram would later recall Ali’s saying: “We went to Manila as champions, Joe and me, and we came back old men.”

Ali-Spinks

Feb. 15, 1978

Las Vegas

Ali was 36, his opponent 24. An Olympic gold medalist, Spinks was appearing in only his eighth professional fight. It looked like such a mismatch that Las Vegas bookmakers didn’t even establish a betting line.

It must have looked that way to Ali too. He trained absent-mindedly and showed up out of shape. In one of boxing’s biggest upsets, Spinks won a split decision.

“I thank God,” Spinks said. “God’s the main man.”

Ali vowed, “I’ll be back. I’ll be the first man to win the title three times.”

Ali fulfilled the promise seven months later before nearly 65,000 fans in the Louisiana Superdome, winning a 15-round decision over Spinks to capture the title for the third time.

It was Ali’s last victory — less a demonstration of the champion’s regenerative powers than of Spinks’ lack of discipline.

“I didn’t have my mind on the fight,” Spinks said.

Ali would fight twice more — losing to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick — in exercises that inspired mainly nostalgia.